Devil Cat (Yukari Oshima, etc., 1991)

[john_larocque]

IMDB Chinese title: Mao bian

http://www.taiseng.com/detail.cfm?varItemId=1158

1991; Directed by CHOW CHEUN; Starring: FONG CHUN SHUN, SHUN WEI, YUKARI OSHIMA;

An action-packed kung fu thriller starring martial arts champion YUKARI OSHIMA aka CYNTHIA LUSTER.

Another description:

-- Description for Devil Cat VHS
--A supernatural actioner with popular favorite Oshima as a half-human, half-feline shapeshifter whose ancient rivalry with a foe who is half-dog (what else?) continues into modern-day Hong Kong.

[Mike Thomason]

I can see a credit for actor Alex Fong Chung Sun on that video sleeve. But that, like the few other titles you have recently posted, doesn't automatically qualify this as a Hong Kong film. I suspect this, like some of the other titles you have recently posted, are either Taiwanese or Filipino titles as made available on Chinese language cassette.

The reason I suspect this is that the "Cynthia Luster" credit for Yukari Oshima was one unique to her work with Phillip Ko Fei in the Philippines, and I'm fairly sure "Chow Cheun" has turned up as a Chinese credit for a Filipino director before (akin to the manner in which Filipino production LETHAL PANTHER 2 has its direction credited to "Chow Fung"). Thus, I'd be hesitant to add a lot of these titles to the database until someone can come forward and verify their origin. Cheap Filipino action films, with imported HK stars, flooded the Chinese language video outlets in the late eighties and early nineties -- often dubbed into Cantonese and set with Chinese & English subtitles. They seldom saw theatrical release, and usually debuted straight-to-video; sometimes they were even cobbled together from other films (finished and unfinished). They were "counterfeit Hong Kong action movies", domestically designed to cash in on the then lucrative market for HK action in the Philippines.

I saw Filipino sci-fi actioner ULTRACOP 2000 in the theatres and, though it starred Yukari Oshima and Phillip Ko (as well as sported a Cantonese dubbed soundtrack), it was obviously a Manila-lensed production and the supporting cast were all Filipino actors. These films pose a problem for us -- they were made available to overseas markets dubbed into Cantonese and headlined (slumming) HK action stars, thereby giving the illusion of being Hong Kong action films (which were bankable at the time). Once again, a prime example of why I'd be hesitant to utilise the IMDb as a cross reference resource -- as those attributing these titles as originating from Hong Kong perhaps had no idea they were largely Filipino productions (albeit disguised to give the illusion of being something they are not).

Cheers & hope this small piece of film history helps!
Michael

NB: Further information about the Yukari Oshima "Cynthia Luster" connection can be found here...
http://www.brns.com/yukari/Yukaribio3.html

[Mike Thomason]

Further to the above, herein lies the inadverted perils of assuming outside sources are true and correct...

LETHAL PANTHER 2
http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?i ... ay_set=eng

...is listed in the database here, and is attributed as a "Hong Kong" movie. Sadly, it is not. It is a Filipino production with imported star Yukari Oshima.

If it's a Filipino film, why is it here in the database? Because the film's producer, Phillip Ko (who set up shop in the Philippines at the turn of the nineties after he fled there on the back of escalating triad-financed filmmaking loans) was a smart cookie -- Chinese credits were applied to the export print, and the film was dubbed into Cantonese. To overseas buyers desparate for product that capitalised on the early nineties HK action movie craze the film, for all intents and purposes, looked like a Hong Kong movie. It sported Chinese credits and a soundtrack to match -- but it was produced and filmed in Manila, largely with local actors, and originally made available in the Tagalog dialect.

The film's original Tagalog title is MAGKASANGGA SA BATAS. Ko was a smart operator -- his name was known as a former Shaw Brothers and kung fu movie veteran and, though now based in the Philippines, he could sell his "Hong Kong styled" action films to overseas buyers who were none the wiser once the productions had been rejigged to "look" like HK productions, at a fraction of the cost of their HK cousins. Thus...where does this leave us? The majority of Ko's post '91 productions (like the database listed SHOCKING ASIA films -- West German productions financed by Hong Kong backers) are actually Filipino of origin. Do we continue to list them, for posterity, but adjust their Country of Origin listings? Or do we remove them as they are not Hong Kong films, nor co-productions with Hong Kong?

Over to you, guys,
Michael

[john_larocque]

I have my own notions about which titles do - and do not - belong here, but that would be in one of the other forums.

As for IMDB, I don't really use that except when it links to Chinese-sourced tapes from companies like Tai Seng, which quite often came from Taiwan and elsewhere. Tai Seng's prints for many flims were actually Ocean Shores - a Taiwanese supplier - which helps explain how much of that Taiwanese product came out.

I don't think every Tai Seng titles belongs in the HKMDB, but maybe 2/3 of them belong here. So if I notice a title that MIGHT belong here, I think it's worth mentioning.

( I do think that every single title from the Shaw reissues program from Celestial do belong here. I'm pretty firm on that, and so far, all of them are. )

[john_larocque]

Found another Tai Seng release, "Guardian Angel", with Ko and Oshima.



http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.534 ... etails.htm

Interesting speculation on this page on Godfrey being a nom-de-plume for Philip Ko and a reference to (the apaprently Filipino) Guardian Angel. (Thanks for the above Oshima link... )

http://www.brns.com/yukari/Yukaribio2.html

I hit another page earlier on Ko's Angel Fire (with Oshima, also Philipines) which made this interesting comment: "The exposition has that edited with a butcher knife feel of Godfrey Ho's movies. Characters come and go and there are a lot of subplots that are never really fully dealt with."

http://www.hkfilm.net/yukari.htm

It would be her later marriage to Phillip Ko that would hold the most influence over Yukari's career. Ko was a former "old-school" kung fu star who had moved onto action co-ordination and directing. Most of Ko's productions were cheap affairs, many times shot in Thailand or the Phillipines, and this seems to have affected many people's opinions of Yukari's work... To make matters worse, Yukari also appeared in several movies produced or directed by Godfrey Ho, a film-maker best known for actually not making many films, but rather cutting and pasting footage from various sources together. Fans have always been puzzled as to why Yukari would appear in such movies; some have pointed to the rumor that Godfrey Ho is actually a pseudonym for Phillip Ko.

[Mike Thomason]

John,

First up -- not questioning or devaluating your intentions with the IMDb; just offering a personal opinion on my own assessments of the resource for validity of information, that's all. I'm glad there's someone doing what you're doing -- I know I'd never have time for such an exhaustive project (realistically, I can only manage a swing by here most nights of the week, and some time on weekends)!

Secondly, I can confirm for you that GUARDIAN ANGEL was a Filipino production (infact, it looked like three unfinished Filipino productions edited together in the most scattershot fashion you could imagine - there's at least three source films utilised in its production, as they vary in print quality...which also indicates that one of them was quite older than the surrounding nineties shot material (Japanese electronic artist Isao Tomita's "Syncopated Clock" recording [circa 1982] shows up in one sequence), and there was also soft-porn footage that shows up...with no relation to either of the other two narratives. A lot of Ko's Philippines-lensed titles showed up in Australian Chinese language cinemas, most notably those supplied by Yu Enterprises. The late Raymond Yu seems to have held some kind of licencing agreement for the local exhibition of Ko's Filipino titles as most, if not all, of the nineties titles turned up near me during that period (none the wiser -- I also saw most of them).

Here's a fabulous thread from our very own forums about the history (or non-history) of Godfrey Ho...

http://hkmdb.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=42261

[Brian Thibodeau]

LETHAL PANTHER 2 is listed in the database here, and is attributed as a "Hong Kong" movie. Sadly, it is not. It is a Filipino production with imported star Yukari Oshima. . . . . .Do we continue to list them, for posterity, but adjust their Country of Origin listings? Or do we remove them as they are not Hong Kong films, nor co-productions with Hong Kong?

I'm of the mindset that these movies should stay but have their countries of origins properly accredited when the information becomes available. My reasoning is personal and tenuous, (as usual!): I think the majority of us came across these films in Chinatown theatres, Chinatown video stores, Chinese DVDs, or via videos/LDs/VCDs from Chinese-owned Tai Seng - all in versions sporting Chinese packaging, Chinese/English subtitles and, of course, Chinese dubbing. Many knew instantly, myself included, just from watching them that they were clearly not filmed in Hong Kong, and we could easily deduce that the Cantonese dubbing did not match the mouths of many of the supporting players (who were no doubt speaking Tagalog), and yet going through these Chinese sources was pretty much the only way to obtain many of these films (unless one lived in the Phillipines, I suppose!). Realizing these are generally NOT considered Chinese films even though they may topline ethnic Chinese/Hong Kong actors (or in the case of Yukari, Japanese), I still think newcomers to the field will stumble across these films as we did - via Chinese sources - and possibly check in here for research purposes or curiosity's sake, and as such, I think it couldn't hurt to keep the listings but simply correct the country of origin entries.

Just a thought...

[Mike Thomason]

Believe it or not...that's exactly what I was thinking! But I just wanted to see what other people here thought...

[STSH]

Here's a fabulous thread from our very own forums about the history (or non-history) of Godfrey Ho...

http://hkmdb.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=42261

Great stuff.
This is definitely a link which should be granted the special feature status mentioned in another thread.

[calros]

"Evil Cat". Added. According to iPAC, this is a taiwanese movie.

"Guardian Angel" sorry I need the chinese title.